THE VOYAGE FROM NAPLES TO EAST AFRICA. 
27 
spection of it enabled him to make a close comparison between the 
two great canals. The Suez Canal is, of course, a very different 
proposition from that of Panama, though the problem of part of 
the latter is similar to that of the whole of the Suez Canal, whose 
sandy shelving banks necessitate a constant dredging which is the 
day and night task of the canal guardians. 
The ex-President’s ship glided so silently, so slowly through the 
narrow channel that at times it seemed as if it was not moving. The 
low flat level shores, stretching in alternate wastes of sand and 
water to the horizon, are so uniform that there is no feature by 
which to mark progress. On the eastern horizon the mountains of 
the Holy Land rise like a pink vision of lonely desolation. How 
many years did those unfortunate sons of Israel wander in that 
dreary land far away to our left? 
NEATLY KEPT CANAL STATIONS. 
Natives, some on camels, some on donkeys and some on san¬ 
daled feet, travel with the ship or pass it going the other way. Oc¬ 
casionally, like anthills, Arab settlements rise out of the sand on 
either side, taking on the color of the desert which drifts about 
them. Or Ave come to the neatly kept canal stations, all numbered, 
Avhich stand at regular intervals along the way. To pass each other 
steamers must wait in appointed widenings of the channel. 
The Bitter Sea spreads out to emphasize the monotony. Al¬ 
ways it is sand, sand, sand, and the still and glassy channel and the 
tremendous firmament on high, blazing by day and all a-glitter by 
night, bending over the sand and water and shutting it in like a 
huge brass bell. Beyond Suez, Avhich lies at the Red Sea end of the 
canal, one comes to the place Avhere the children of Israel passed 
safely through the divided waters which then rose and engulfed 
Pharaoh and his hosts. Ah! those wonderful descendants of Jacob! 
They “wrote the Book,’^ (Exodus 14: 22, 28). 
It was at this point that the ex-President passed under the 
shadoAV almost of Mount Sinai, AATere Closes and Aaron ascended 
and the Lord promulgated the ten commandments, (Exodus 20), 
No place on the whole route looks more forbidding and utterly 
